The sounds of people praising Jesus from inside a boarded up house, "Yesoo, Yesoo, kweehahn Yesoo...," ("Jesus, Jesus, precious Jesus...").

An amputee proudly showing off his push cart store that allows him to make a living. He received an artificial limb, and thus the ability to run such a business, at the Christian Amputee Center.

A little "church building" made of scrap lumber from the packing boxes of the American army. The roof, rusty corrugated iron, thoroughly penetrated by bullet holes. The remains of a mighty North Korean church now reduced to refugee status and maybe 20 people. But faithfully carrying on, joyful to be serving Jesus.

Orphans, like the ones pictured above, found by the people of God, embraced, loved, brought into God's kingdom by the thousands, as slowly the Christian world hears of the awful tragedy and insists on being included in the healing.

I don't know a lot personally about the "innards" of North Korea today, but I venture to say that "the church of Jesus Christ is the one bright spot in the present dark picture of [North] Korea." That's just how Christ is.

Somewhere in the mountains outside Hoeryong a man of God secretly ministers to God-hungry prisoners in a concentration camp there. I'm sure of it. And life is passed on, and many go into eternity rejoicing that they found life before they found death.

In a village in the Northeastern section of the country, I am confident that citizens returning from a stay in China, where they were confronted with the claims of Jesus, now pass those claims on to brothers and sisters and aunts and uncles and more.

Somewhere in a field, a child runs across a bright orange balloon covered with Bible verses or a huge bag of tracts for distribution by her parents. Others receive radios whereby they can plug into the Gospel story. All because Jesus will not allow any nation to perish in the darkness without affording some light.

All we ask in our prayers is that that light be allowed to shine a little brighter. A few more transformed lives, a little more of the glory of God on a few more faces. And then a little more. Eventually, night becomes day.